Omar Ali, a 14-year-old boy has confidence and exciting football skills that have landed him a trip to visit Europe for the very first time.
Omar cannot hide his anxiety for the upcoming trip to a world football summit in Leon City, France home to legendary French footballer Zinedine Zidane.
He hails from the mountain zone in Marsabit and is among four young footballers from the Horn of Africa Development Initiative (Hodi) invited to the football summit.
The summit will bring together over 80 organizations that use soccer to promote peace in war torn communities and countries.
“When I joined the initiative, I could not play with others because I was a small, young child. However I had opportunities to go to Tanzania to play football. Now that I am part of the players who have an opportunity to visit France, I am exerting more pressure for more practice time,” said Omar.
The young boy whose career desire is to be a doctor, says practice has helped nurture his talent and is keen on ensuring that one day he plays for an international soccer club.
Hodi coordinator Abdul Noor said the organization founded in 2003, centers on activities in Marsabit county so as to reduce incidents of cattle rustling and spearhead education and talent for the young people who are mainly architects of the raids. Northern Kenya is characterized by insecurity owing to the nomadic lifestyle practiced by the communities among them the Samburu, Turkana, Borana, Rendile and Somali who from time to time raid manyattas and take away livestock from either community.
However, for the last eight years, the youth in Marsabit have been mopped up to shun these retrogressive cultural activities and live peacefully through playing football.
Noor says they introduced football in 2008 and have managed to reach out and train 6,000 children. Some of the pioneers of the program are working as staff.
Currently, he says, there are four football zones in Marsabit and Omar is one of their star football player. “Our interaction with individual schools is limited and we interact with the children through the parents. We get them during holidays and weekends,” he says.
Omar’s mother Halima Abdi says her son joined the football initiative in 2011.
“I see it as an effective way of bringing the community together and eradicating the frequent conflicts. As a family, we gave Omar support when we realized he was skilled. We are very excited about his trip” she said.
Noor says that Omar was recruited from the manyatta’s just like other children who were given an opportunity to play with the ball. His talent and leadership abilities were